Age: 27
Investment Profile: extremely aggressive
Salary Contributed: maximum limit
Company Match: none
Other Savings: Roth IRA, Trad IRA, Solo 401(k), Stock "slush fund"

Distribution:

50% Large Cap
23% International
15% Mid Cap
9% Small Cap
3% Other (RE, Wood)

I suspect it's too simplistic to just have a strategy for your 401(k) and exclude the rest of your assets, so my thinking is:

1. My investment timeline is roughly 25 years. I'm not worried about short-term blips or dips. I AM worried about maximizing the number under the exponent, which means I care a lot more about contributing now than I will in 15 or 20 years.

2. Statistically the US stock indices are great long-term vehicles with no thought or effort required.

3. The financial health of a lot of regions seems bound to improve enormously in the next 25 years. (I like Latin America and Asia-Pacific.)

4. I allocate a small percentage of my dollars to investing in individual US stocks in industries that I know well -- in my case, software and insurance.

My metric for success/goal is to try to beat the US indices by 2% per year. So far that's been no problem, though I realize that I'm probably getting lucky.

Age:24
Investment Profile:Aggresive Growth
% of Salary Contributed:Maximum
Company Match:50% of the first 6% contributed
Other Retirement Vehicles Used:Rollover IRA, Roth IRA

401k Distrbution: 100% BSCFX

Age: 27
Investment Profile: N/A
% of Salary Contributed: none
Company Match: 10% of contributions / 5yrs vesting schedule
Other Retirement Vehicles Used: none

401k Distrbution: N/A

Going against the convention.
See you at the finish line.
Will probably change my mind when I get older and wiser.

jayK said:sdeals said:Age: 27
Investment Profile: N/A
% of Salary Contributed: none
Company Match: 10% of contributions / 5yrs vesting schedule
Other Retirement Vehicles Used: none

401k Distrbution: N/AI'm curious, what's your rationale for giving up that free 10%?

I think I can do better elsewhere.
Seriously though, I truly believe that I will be in a higher/same tax bracket at retirement (+ less deductions).

Actually, I need funds for business investments in order to build wealth.
Hopefully, the investments are going to pay off so I can catch up on retirement.

Age: 35
Investment Profile: not sure
% of Salary Contributed: 8%
Company Match: 135% match for the first 6% of contributions, vested immediately. Plus 3% profit sharing

401k Distrbution:
Large Company Stock 36.9%
Small Company Stock 19.8%
International Stock 16.8%
Other 13.3%
Bonds 13.2%

Personal Rate of Return* during this Period (04/06/2004-04/06/2006: 26.3%

Azurik said:I should note my ROTH IRA is 100% invested in Vanguard Target 2045 Retirement.

FYI the TR funds recently increased their equity exposure including adding an EM fund.

FatFreddie said:<<..the US stock indices are great long-term vehicles with no thought or effort required.>>

Watch out - that kind of "sure thing" thinking can be dangerous. Sometimes it pays to bet against the herd, especially when the herd is a stampede.

Invest in yourself - your education & career. Save, save, save and live debt-free.

A very legitimate point. That sentence was poorly phrased. I meant to suggest that investing in the indices is trivial and requires little effort. Fortunately, pretty much the only effort required is simply verifying that the markets are not evaporating. Fortunately, too, if that were to happen, everyone would know about it and most of us would be screwed, "against the herd" or no.

I disagree with the "live debt-free" statement. Selective debt acquisition can have a wonderful long-term positive expectation.

Age: 30
Investment Profile: extremely aggressive
% of Salary Contributed: 401k: none IRA:~10% (max IRS limits)
Company Match: 0% (yep...zero)
Other Retirement Vehicles Used: ROTH IRA, SEP IRA

401k Distrbution: NONE

Oh my wonderful job!

Age: 35
Investment Profile: extremely agressive
% of Salary Contributed: 14%
Company Match: 50% on 1st 6%, vested immediately.
Other Retirement Vehicles Used: pension

401k Distrbution:

35% LifeCycle 2040 (up 5.4%)
35% LifeCycle 2030 (up 6.2%)
10% Non-US Developed Markets Fund (up 11.6%)
10% US Small Cap Stock Fund (up 12.0%)
10% Non US Emerging Markets Fund 200 (up 15.2%)

My year to date rate of return is 8.1% which is good compared to last year, but I'm really thinking about putting more of a % into the non-us funds.

Also considering adding money to a self directed brokerage within the 401k.